Mike Gormez, owner of the old site, has retired from campaigning against cults so the SES discussion forums needed a new home. Mike has supported this move by providing a database backup that enables the forum to be moved with all existing posts intact.

What has changed?

New members are now welcome! New registrations were disabled on WATD in early 2007 due to massive numbers of spammer registrations (dozens a day) clogging up the database. The new version of the software makes spammer registration more difficult so new registrations have been enabled again. Around 5,000 spammer accounts made on the old site have been terminated. The criteria used to delete spammer accounts should not have resulted in any genuine registrations being deleted, but in the unlikely event you find your account has accidentally been purged, apologies - you can re-register.

New software: The board has been upgraded to the latest version of the phpBB software (version 3). This has better functionality, and behind-the-scenes administration should not be as time-consuming. It also has a new, cleaner style. We hope you like it!

Scientology content: The anti-Scientology content of the old forums has not moved to this site. ses-forums.org is exclusively about the School of Economic Science (SES) and its satellite schools for adults and children around the world, though we welcome discussion of any cults or cult-like behaviour where it has relevance to the SES.

Reference Material: The reference material section previously on the old site has been merged into the General Discussion on SES forum. I am in the process of setting up a separate section on this website where users will be able to place reference material. [UPDATE: now available at http://reference.ses-forums.org]

Emoticons: Emoticons haven't yet been installed - they are not part of the standard software used for these forums but I will see if I can install them.

Avatars: Any avatars on the old site have not been moved across as these are held separately from the database. If you had an avatar on WATD feel free to move it over yourself.

Improved search: the search function has been improved. If you are looking for something among the thousands of existing posts you should find it more easily.

Please report anything else you may have noticed that has changed unexpectedly.

What hasn't changed?

Existing posts: All the 400+ threads and 8,000+ posts in the old 'General Discussion of SES' forum made prior to 29 September 2008 should have been moved across unchanged.

Private Messages: All Private Messages made before 29 September 2008 should also have been moved.

Moderation policy: Moderation policy remains unchanged. The board is unashamedly anti-SES but we welcome contributions from users sympathetic to the SES who are willing to argue their case and accept the brickbats that will obviously follow. Note: former moderator Goblinboy has decided to retire from moderating but we will hopefully continue to see him post from time to time. Thanks GB for your great work when the old board was active. I am hoping to recruit a new moderator soon.

Links to the old whyaretheydead.net site: The site contains numerous links to posts on the old WATD site. I may at some future date convert these links to point to the equivalent post on this site, but for now they remain unchanged.

Any comments on and suggestions for the new site are welcome. This is your site - please let me know how you want to use it.

If you are aware of any sites that link to the old WATD forums, please do what you can to redirect them to http://www.ses-forums.org.

Please spread the word that the discussion forums are back in business!

I feel a special mention of gratitude must go to Daffy for taking over responsibility of the forum from Mike and transferring everything to this new and improved site.

Without his sterling effort and long hours put in (e.g. clearing 1000s of spammer registrations), the forum risked becoming stagnant and (for technical reasons) possibly going down again, like it did a while ago.

Free Thinker wrote:it's value, even as an archive, is really important.

I agree - I'm under no illusions that the forums are suddenly going to take off again, but it's important that people can continue to use it as a reference site.

On the same topic, the new board software has much improved search functionality. Try it using the search box near the top of the screen in the main index. I'll add a note to this effect in my original post. NB: I've noticed that if you use the search box while you are viewing a thread it will only search that thread.

Yes, thanks Daffy for taking over and GB for all your hard work over the years. I'm happy that we have our own site now, and like many others really value this as an archive and reference site. It's such a quick and easy way for me to explain what I'm going on about when I talk about the SES - I just e-mail them a link to the forum!

Pupil at St James Girl's School from 1979-1989, from age 4-14. Parents ex-members of SES.

This board is VERY important. This is the first time I've posted, but I've looked at the threads numerous times. I was born into and raised in the NYC "School" (aka School of Practical Philosophy, Practical Philosophy Foundation) and it was an incredibly traumatic experience for me. It makes me feel less alone in it to know that there are people out there who have the same feelings about it as I do and who understand what a struggle growing up in it was. Thanks to Daffy and everyone else!

Because of the difficulties of the old forum new signups were put on hold and as a result it amount of chatter here has somewhat declined. Hopefully this will come back now that we have this brand new site and new people can join like yourself.

Not wishing to put pressure on you but in the interests of promoting a little discussion, can you tell us about your experiences with the New York school and what you had to contend with. What is your perception of the state of the PPF and SPP in New York?

This world probably be best started in a new thread rather than the Welcome area.

Hey everyone - I finally have an avatar. I figured I'd use a cute kitten since you you can't go wrong with a cute kitten.

Also, NYCGirl - the board was a lot more active in the months leading up to the Inquiry done in England into the abuse at the St. James and St. Vedast schools. Afterwards, it quieted down as some people were able to hear from their professors who sometimes apologized or otherwise explained what happened, and I think that some people stopped posting because they were so disappointed and disgusted with the poor response from the school. Mr. Boddy gave a lot of hogwash about how the schools are like a pottery and the teacher is the potter who molds the students like clay. Of course he left off what happens when the potter throws blackboards at the clay, beats his pots with a cane, makes the paint stay out in the cold and rain for hours with no jacket,etc...